Monday, April 30, 2007

Country Shops with the stitching on the shops complete, except for thenames of the stores back stitched onto the signs. I'll save that for last. Ihave to stitch the vines, hearts and checkerboard corners above the shopsand then it'll be done. I remember from the first piece that I did in thisseries that the vines were a major pain to do for some reason. Had to doa bit of frogging as I recall until I had it all placed correctly. We'll see howthis one goes.

I've meant to write about a lovely evening that I had one week ago whenI joined my neighbour Amy for a lady's night out. A local church washaving a "Desert and Lecture" night and Amy and a few of her friendswere going, and she asked if I'd care to join them. Desert Night???Oh, yeah sure, twist my arm.

So, kicking and screaming, they dragged me to Desert Night. I wassurprised by the crowd that showed up for this occasion. They saidthat there were about 400 women at the event. There were tablesset up in the auditorium, covered in crisp white table clothes, and setwith flowers, lit candles and the necessary tableware. There weretables loaded with deserts scattered around the room, manned byteenage volunteers and each table was assigned to a specific "DesertStation". The deserts ranged from home made to store bought andthere was something there for every one's taste. Oh, and there wasa chocolate fountain as well! We lined up, loaded our plates withgoodies, and returned to our seats where we shared bites ofwhatever we'd chosen with each other. My favourite was a chocolatemeringue cake with whipped cream on top and sprinkled withraspberries and blackberries. Oh heaven indeed!! The Bailey'scake was good too.

As much as the Deserts were a big draw though, the person givingthe evenings lecture in the main hall of the church was probably asmuch of a draw in her own right, if not more so. Her name is KimPhuc and most of us know her because we've all seen her in a veryfamous photograph. She was the nine year old child in a picturetaken during the Vietnam war, running down a dirt road, herclothes burned off by napalm, arms outstretched and face contortedin anguish and terror. Yes, most of us know that picture and weshudder at the memory of it.

Amazingly, Kim Phuc survived that horrible experience, thanks inpart to the photographer who took that picture, and who rushedher to the hospital. Sadly, her three year old cousin did not survivethat day. There were pictures taken of him too, in his mother's arms.Most of us could not look at those pictures.

Kim grew up in Vietnam, after the war, under the Communistregime. She was used as a propaganda tool by the government,and was unable to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor becauseof it. She was sent to Cuba, and lived there for six years. She mether husband there, and after they married they were allowed togo to Moscow for their honeymoon. It was on the return trip fromtheir honeymoon that their plane stopped in Gander, Nfld forrefueling, and they took the opportunity to defect. They havebeen living in Canada ever since.

Kim's faith in God is strong, and that was part of her lecture. Shealso feels strongly about the futility of war, and she is working toraise money to improve the lives of other's less fortunate then us,who live in war ravaged countries. She also talked about herrecovery from her injuries and how she still has to deal with agreat deal of pain, even after all these years. She is a lovelywoman of 44 years now, with a beautiful smile. She has twoyoung sons with her husband and she is proud of how Canadianthey are.

Listening to Kim Phuc speak, and indeed just seeing herwalk out on stage, alive and relatively well, after knowing heronly through that infamous picture, was an emotional moment.Not many people could have survived such a horrible experiencewith the grace and the joy and the gratitude that she has. It wasan evening I'll remember for a long time.

Spring has certainly arrived here in earnest at last. In just a weekthe trees have put out buds, the garden is growing by leaps and bounds and the grass is growing. DH mowed for the first time thisseason on Sunday. He spent much of Sunday afternoon digging,raking and poking around in the yard. He was in his glory! I gotmy household chores done as early as possible, and spent a fewhours out on the front porch stitching. Then, in the evening, wewent to a pot luck supper for DH's praise group choir which theyhave at the end of each month. This month food theme wasItalian. Mmmmmmmmm.

And finally, a picture of our hallway linen closet. Well, it was ourlinen closet. When we had the bathroom renovated about 13 yearsago we had a linen cupboard built in there. So this one was notnecessary. Two years ago, when we had the upstairs bedroomsand hallway done we had this little closet turned into a book shelf.Because, after all, you can never have too many bookcases.

Finished reading "The Sunday Wife" by Cassandra King on the weekend and am now reading "A Girl of the Limberlost". I couldn't put"The Sunday Wife" down and read it in a couple of days. I highlyrecommend it.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Guess what!!! I've been so bad, again! I was browsing through StitchingBit's n Bob's website a few weeks ago (very innocently) and discoveredthat they were having an Easter sale. Well, what could I do? I had a listmade up of charts that I wanted, and I've been wanting to lay in somefabric to have on hand for future projects, and one thing just led to another.

So, to tally up the damage....here is what I got:

Old Books ~ Cricket Collection

Family Mittens ~ Cricket Collection

All Hearts Come Home ~ With My Needle

Spot of Tea 1 ~ Samplers and Such

Watermelon ~ Little House Needleworks

Friendship In All Seasons ~ The Trilogy

French Country - Love ~ JBW Designs

The lovely fabric pieces are:

Queen Anne's Lace ~ Fat Quarter~ Jobelan

Pink Dahlia ~ Fat Quarter ~ Jobelan

Summer Sky ~ Fat Quarter ~ Jobelan

I've never gotten charts from any of the above designers before,except for Little House Needleworks, so I was curious to see howthey packaged and printed their charts. All look to be reasonablyclearly charted and if I need to I can always use the photocopierat work to make a bigger working copy when I'm stitching.

These are my first hand dyed fabrics and I love them!! Especiallythe blue one. Gosh! When we started stitching back in the late80's we never dreamed that these fabrics and hand dyed threadswould appear and enhance the stitching experience. I can'tunderstand how anyone could claim that cross stitching is not aspopular today with all this beautiful stuff out there to work with.The many different designers available to chose from means thatthere has to be a style out there to suit any one's taste. We areso lucky to have them.

Okay, enough gushing from me. I'm all excited about my newacquisitions (now I understand somewhat about how Gollum feltabout his "precious"!!) so please excuse the hyper boil.

I should also say that I added these charts to my "want's it" listafter reading stitcher's blogs out there and seeing their versionsof these projects all stitched and finished up. Many times viewingpictures of these things on the designer's websites you can'tmake out much detail from their pictures, and sometimes it'salmost impossible to see anything at all that conveys thebeauty of the project adequately. So when I go to Becky's siteor Lelia's or Shannon's or anyone else's (and there is a very, verylong list of blogs that I haunt and love) I get a better idea of whata design looks like then on the site of the person who designed it.And their awesome finishing techniques enhance the piece evenmore. Okay, I'm gushing again. Sorry.

And I should add that I am very impressed with the servicethat I've recieved from Stitching Bit's n Bobs. Very quickdelivery of my orders from them so far. Thanks Bobbie!

I should go make dinner. DH has mini-choir tonight so has to befed and out the door by 7:00. It's a rainy, grey day here so thegarden will be happy. TGIF!!!

And speaking of the garden, here's another charming, blurry shot of ourbackyard taken last weekend when the sun was shining. Hurray forSpring!!!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

As promised (threatened) in my last post, here are the books that Ifound at the used book sale last Saturday. The books that I boughtare:

The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith

Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

Somewhere Lies the Moon by Kathryn Lynn Davis

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter

The Sunday Wife by Cassandra King

All are hardcovers, and are in very good condition. I actuallystarted reading "The Sunday Wife" today and it's fantastic. Theauthor has a great sense of humour which shows up throughout herwriting. I suspect that I'll be looking for more of her books after I'vefinished this one.

The only author in the above list that I've read before is KathrynLynn Fowler. I have a couple of her books, although I've only readone so far.

I've heard a lot about Alexander McCall Smith and his variousseries of books. I've been thinking about trying one or two of themout to see if I'll like them. One series is "The No. 1 Ladies DetectiveAgency" and the other is "Isabel DalhousieMystery's". So now Ican read these and see if I like his style of writing or not.

"A Girl of the Limberlost" was first published around 1905. I recallhearing the title at some time but don't know anything about thebook or it's author. There is information at the beginning of the bookabout the author Gene Stratton Porter and it says that she was aprolific writer who's books were very popular in their time. I haveit in my mind that this story might be similar to the coming of agetype stories such as Lucy Maude Montgomery might write, orLouisa May Alcott. I'm looking forward to reading this one too.

I have a confession to make. I have never read any of Jane Austen'sbooks. I have all of them, and obviously I'd like to read them some-day, but I guess that I feel a bit intimidated by them. I know thatthose who read Jane Austen and enjoy her writings are often quitepassionate about her books. I like that. Even two hundred yearsafter her death she has a large and loyal following. But I'm afraidthat I'll pick up one of her books, and try to read it, and I won't beable to get into it. I've never been able to read any of the Brontesister's books, although I have read a sizable biography about them.Will I have the same difficulty with Jane Austen?

So why did I pick up "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen JoyFowler??? I guess in part I'm hoping that it'll tweak my interest inthe Jane Austen books and encourage me to pick one up. It looksto be a fun read in it's own right.

There's a bunch of new books coming out in May that I'm going to begetting for sure. Top of my list however is Kelley Armstrong's latestwhich is coming out in hardcover. It's called "No Humans Involved".If you like a well written, humourous read with supernatural overtonesthen Kelley's books are not to be missed.

Monday, April 23, 2007

A nasty thunderstorm was nipping at my heels as I made the final dashfrom Go Bus stop to home this afternoon. I could see the sky to the northwas dark grey with menacing clouds as the Go bus traveled throughGeorgetown and I suspected that it would be a close thing, whether I madeit home before the rains came or not. Not!

The rain was sprinkling the bus's windshield as we rounded the final corneron highway 7 and my stop came up. I was scrabbling to pack my book in aplastic bag and then stuff it in my shoulder bag, and then realized myumbrella was at the bottom of that bag and had to rummage furiously tofind it and haul it out. Then arranged purse, shoulder bag and cross stitchbag so that the cross stitch bag was against my side and protected by theothers. As I got off the bus the wind grabbed for my umbrella and we hada struggle until I managed to gain control.

I had to wait for the road to clear before I could cross, but was luckyenough not to have to wait for too long. As I skipped across the street, witha blustery breezy escort, the rain began to come down harder. I half ran/halfwalked down the sidewalk as the thunder began to roll. Two doors fromhome the rain began to pelt and I threw caution and a sore heel to the wind(literally) and ran for it.

The front porch was a flimsy shelter at best as the rain was falling at aslant and soaking the area almost as if it was out in the open. I hung myumbrella on the mail box, fished my keys out of my purse, and got thefront door open and myself through it with a final push from theelements behind me. And the door closed on a deluge of rain and a roarof thwarted thunder.

So how was your day??

My weekly update of "Country Stores" by Cross Country Stitching. I spenta lot of time this weekend sitting on the front stoop stitching away. Springfinally arrived here in all her glory. It was in the mid 70's and sunny, withnot a cloud in the sky. Wonderful.

There was a used book sale at a local high school to raise money forcharity so I roused myself out of bed at the crack of dawn (7:30 am) sothat I could be showered, dressed, and fed before 8:45. The doors weresuppose to open at 9:00 but when we got there, well before 9:00 therewere already people coming out with bags full of books. DH dropped meoff and went to run some errands, while I made my way indoors and intothe high school's auditorium, where there were tables lined up end to endand piled with books. The organizers had arranged the books according tosubject and each section had a large sign to let people know where thevarious types of books were.

I spent about half an hour wandering around, checking out the books, andI came away with six hardcover books in good to excellent condition. I'vealready stored them down in the library but I'll list their titles and authorson my next post, when I have more time. If I remember.

I'm going out after dinner this evening, and so I've got to finish this soonand go make a quick meal for DH and I. I've been lax in posting the lastfew days and felt that I should make an effort today, even if time wasshort.

The picture at the top of this post is of some of the spring flowers that areappearing in our backyard. I love Spring!!! Cheers!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Last night was the LoreenaMcKennitt concert at Massey Hall. MasseyHall is one of the oldest concert venues in Toronto. It is well over 100years old, and has incredible acoustics. You can sit just about anywherein this old building and hear everything clearly. It is three levels, withsteep steps to navigate if you have seats in either of the balcony's. Ihave sat up there once or twice and believe me, you almost need torappel down to your seat. I have height and dizziness issues so I hatebeing in the balcony for anything.

Fortunately for last nights show we had our seats on the floor, aboutfour rows from the stage, on the right side. Not as central as I wouldhave liked, and a good distance over from Ms McKennitt's side of thestage, but in the end that was my only quibble. The concert wasfantastic!!

It was the first time that I'd seen LoreenaMckennitt in concert since1998. I also saw her in concert in 1994, and all three times were inMassey Hall. Come to that, I also saw her taping a television appear-ance at Massey Hall in 1993 for a Micheal Burgess special that ran onCBC tv. Note: Michael Burgess was our Jean Val Jean when Les Mizfirst played in Toronto. The original Jean ValJean, Colm Wilkinson,was playing the Phantom in Toronto at the same time in our versionof Phantom of the Opera. But I digress....

As always Loreena had surrounded herself with a group of extra-ordinary performers who recreated the music from her recordingswith flair, exuberance and passion. It was thrilling from beginning toend as each song was performed. Loreena does not like to speakmuch during her shows, preferring to let her music speak for her.But occasionally she would explain a bit about a piece that theywere about to perform to give us an idea of how she came aboutcreating it, and where her inspiration had come from.

For anyone interested here is the set list for last night's show andthe album each appeared on.

Set 1: She Moved Through the Fair ~ Elemental The Gates of Istanbul ~ An Ancient Muse The Mummer's Dance ~ The Book of Secrets Penelope's Song ~ An Ancient Muse Marco Polo ~ The Book of Secrets The Highwayman ~ The Book of Secrets Dante's Prayer ~ The Book of Secrets The Bonny Swans ~ The Mask and Mirror Caravanserai ~ An Ancient Muse

Set 2: The Mystic's Dream ~ The Mask and Mirror Santiago ~ The Mask and Mirror (this is awesome done live!!!) Bonny Portmore ~ The Visit Beneath a Phrygian Sky ~ An Ancient MuseKecharitomene ~ An Ancient Muse The Lady of Shalott ~ The Visit (verses cut due to length, sadly) The Old Ways ~ The Visit Never-Ending Road (AmhranDuit) ~ An Ancient Muse

I very fervently hope that it won't be another nine years before wecan see Ms McKennitt again.

Since this is suppose to be a x-stitching blog as much as anythinghere is a sampler stitched for DH and I when we got married so manyyears ago. We received three samplers for wedding gifts, includingthe one from my Mom featured in an earlier post. So DH has noexcuse for forgetting our anniversary. Lol!Phoebe in a forbidden spot. DH picked me up after the concert last nightand it was midnight before we got home. We had both booked off worktoday in anticipation of this, so we were able to sleep in. I'm just too oldto be going into work with only 5 hours sleep. It's a good day to be homebecause the wind outside is roaring around like a freight train. And it'scold out too. But the weather that we might have gotten yesterday andtoday passed us by and is pounding other areas of the U.S. and Canada.So gang, how do we like Spring so far????

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Progress report on Country Shops project. I guess this is about a month'sworth of work and I would hazard a guess and say that I am about halfway done on this. Two of the buildings share a roof, and I'm just startingon that area. The stair area was fun to stitch, with colour changes andtrying to keep track of which parts were stairs, and which parts were apart of the building. It wasn't until I back stitched the area that thestairs actually became "visible".

My current read, begun this week, is Margaret George's "Helen of Troy".Over the years I've read all of Ms George's books. When her first book"The Autobiography of Henry VIII" came out I bought it for my Dad forhis birthday. I eventually read it too, enjoyed it, and kept an eye out forher new books as they came along. I think that this is her fifth book. Iuse to love Greek mythology, but it's been a long time since I read anything about that topic and I've forgotten a lot of it. This book is not afantasy but more of a historical romance, with the gods and goddessesand the prophesies being in the style of "visions" more then "reality".I am enjoying the story very much and I'm curious as to how Ms Georgewill use and interpret the myths and legends surrounding this famouslove story.

I saw the movie Troy when it came out two years ago and it was okay,but didn't knock my socks off. I'm not a big fan of Brad Pitt's, so hisrole as Achilles didn't impress me over much. Orlando Bloom as Pariswas okay, Eric Bana also didn't make much of an impression as Hector.Peter O'Toole as King Priam was fantastic, not surprisingly. One ofmy friends who went to the movie with me that day is a big fan of SeanBean's and we enjoyed his role in the movie as Odysseus very much.I think that if the movie had had more of the "mythological" story in itas opposed to the dry history it might have added more colour andflavour to it, not to mention some fun. I wouldn't bother seeing it again.

This week was back to work after a weeks holiday. Always hard to getback into the old routine after the pleasure of being home and doingwhatever we wanted to do. Easter Sunday I made dinner for DH, myMom and my SIL. I made Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs, which werefinger licking good (with apologies to the Coronal). I also madeScalloped Potato's, which went with the ribs very nicely. SIL made alemon cake for desert. Yum.

Things in the news this week that caught my attention....BelindaStronach leaving politics to go back and work for her daddy'scompany. Don't let the door hit you on the way out sweetie!!Sheesh!! But she said (threatened) that she may return topolitics in the future. Says that she still has a lot she wants to do.I guess so, since there are still two political party's left that shehasn't tried on for size yet. If she can master the french languagething she may yet make it as leader of the Separatist party ofQuebec.

Eight Canadian soldiers loose their lives in Afghanistan. Whatcan be said that hasn't already been said? They believed in whatthey were doing and were proud to serve and represent ourcountry the way they were. I wonder, are we worthy of theirsacrifice?

Lelia, you commented that you received an Anne Rice book froma friend. I have collected and read all of Anne Rice's Vampire andWitches of Mayfair series. Some of them were good, and some ofthem were lousy. The very best book of hers that I've ever readis not from either series. It's called "The Mummy" and it cameout many years ago. It's about Ramses II and is a wonderful read.In the Vampire series the best books for me were "The VampireLestat" and "Queen of the Damned" and "The Body Thief". I didenjoy all three of the Witches of Mayfair series. The trouble withMs Rice is that she tends to pontificate and get all cosmic aboutthings, and she has to tell you all about it. For chapters andchapters. Ad nauseum. It gets very old and very boring afterawhile.

Darlene and I attended a book signing of Ms Rice's about 10 yearsago when she was in the midst of her Vampire phase. We stood inline for hours just to get her to sign our books. We were in herpresence for all of a minute or so. I'm still glad that we did it though.I love having my books signed by the author, if I can.

Karen, we've had Delia Smith's books and tv series here in Canadatoo and I use to love watching her on television. Her shows werevisually beautiful to watch, with the food preparation and thefinished dishes presented in glorious, colourful detail. She was apatient, calm teacher who had enthusiasm for her subject withoutallowing her personality to overshadow the lesson.

Tomorrow night is the LoreenaMckennitt concert at Massey Hall.Plan to take the Go bus down to Toronto, have dinner with Darleneat Red Lobster, spend some time in the Worlds Biggest Bookstoreand then over to Massey Hall to see the world through MsMckennitt's music. Does that not sound like the most perfect day?Unfortunately it's suppose to be cool with rain/snow showers. Ahwell, we can't have everything.

Rupert, in DH's pajama drawer. You can't leave drawers open when youhave cats. And yes, we do have the world's ugliest furniture in our bedroom.Please ignore.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Ah Spring!! The sky is blue, the grass is turning green, the birds havereturned from their winter vacations, green shoots are appearing inthe garden, the crocuses are in bloom and...er... The weatherman iscalling for snow and below zero temperatures for the next four days.Frak!!!!

And now for my weekly, blurry shot of my current cross stitch project. Iknow you've all been waiting with baited breath. We now have anotherhalf a house, featuring a staircase in front that was quite fiddlie to do. I'm going to start back stitching this bit after I've done my blog entry.

On Monday my friend Charmaine came for lunch and a long overduevisit. We haven't seen each other since long before Christmas, so therewas lots of news and stuff to catch up on. And we exchanged Christmaspresents. Talk about extending the season. We are both readers, so itwas logical that I would give Charm a couple of the books that I knewshe'd want for her collection. In return she gave me a couple of herfavourite cook books. Charm loves to cook, and is fantastic at it. Mealsat her place are a treat and something to anticipate. We have enjoyedmany recipes from this series of books and every time we go there Ibrowse through them and we discuss them. Now I have two of my ownto read and experiment with. I'm not the worlds best cook by any meansbut the recipes in these books are not majorly difficult, there are manygorgeous pictures to enjoy and drool over, and the author has a greatsense of humour. I highly recommend them. The two that Charm gaveme are pictured above.

This week off of work has been both relaxing and enjoyable. I've beendoing a lot of stitching and a lot of computer browsing and blog reading.My mom was here for a visit yesterday and we went to my neighbour'sacross the street to join her and her three young daughters for a teaparty. Lot's of fun.

Today DH and I did a run to a used bookstore in Milton to drop off fourboxes of books that I'd weeded out of my collection last month. I'venever done this before so wasn't sure how it would work. Apparently, atthis store at least, you drop off the books and the owner goes throughthem and checks her currant inventory via her computer. If she doesn'talready have copy's of your books on her shelves she'll take them offyour hands and give you back a certain dollar value to use in her store. The books that she already has on site she returns to you and you lookfor somewhere else to get rid of them. She'd sorted about half the lotbefore we left the store and so we took back about two thirds of a boxof books that she already had. These we took to a re-cycling depot herein Georgetown called Waste Wise, which took the books off of our handsand will sell for a few dollars.

The used bookstore owner just called to say that she was giving us backtwo boxes of books, and was giving me a store credit of $65.00 for therest. Wow. Sounds good doesn't it? Trouble is that I'm a book snob. Iprefer my books (both paperback and hardcover) to be in pristinecondition. No yellowed pages, no frayed covers, no cracked spines andno tea stains, or whatever. And I prefer hardcovers over paperback.Wandering through the store I didn't see anything that I wanted to addto my library which passed my stiff criteria. I could blow $65.00 at theregular bookstore without blinking twice, but I doubt that I'll bothergoing back to the used bookstore and taking her up on her offer. As longas someone else gets some enjoyment out of the books that I probablywould never have read that's fine by me.

DH and I have been watching Firefly on DVD, which I got a year ago. He's watched the entire series before but I haven't and I must say thatit is wonderful. What an imagination JossWhedon has, and a greatsense of humour too. What a shame that the series never made it ontv. Great cast, great writing and something completely different fromwhat's on tv today. We're Buffy and Angel fans here too.

And finally, a gratuitous shot of Rupert checking out my stash cupboard.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

It is a cool, grey day outside and the rain is falling steadily. It has beendoing so for about an hour now, and is suppose to continue for most ofthe morning. There is a possibility that the sun will appear, at leastoccasionally, this afternoon. Then in the evening we may get a thunderstorm. It is Spring. It's also April first, and therefore April Fool's Day.Hope you've all avoided any pranksters who may abide in your homeor amongst your acquaintances.

DH and I have begun a week of holidays. Usually when DH is off onvacation the weather is invariably gorgeous. We have a neighbourwho has actually asked DH to let her know when he's taking time offbecause she wants to plan her holidays for the same time to guaranteeher good weather. Unfortunately, when I take holidays the weathertends to turn sour. Either that or I come down with some nasty virusto entertain for the duration. So far this weekend I remain sniffle-free,however my weather jinx has proven to be stronger then DH's weather-bliss. It seems the next week will be cool and rainy. No sitting out onthe front stoop cross stitching for me.

This morning when I got up DH informed me that another harbinger ofSpring had arrived. The Cedar Waxwings are back in town. During a fewdays each Spring, and again in the Autumn, the Cedar Waxwings appear,to feed on the berries in our Cherry trees. They use to come for theberries in our Mountain Ash tree, but the mature tree that we had, andloved, came down in a wind storm a few years ago. We've planted a newone but it will be years before that one is mature enough to satisfy thehungry hoards. I think that the Cedar Waxwing is one of the mosthandsome birds that I've ever seen. Very elegant, with hints of brilliantcolour. Their tails look as if they've been dipped in yellow paint, with abrush stroke of orange placed just so on their wings. And that black maskover the eyes would put the most dapper of super hero's to shame. Theyalso have a crest on top of their heads, which adds to their charm.

Yesterday DH and I spent the afternoon shopping for pants for him. Thismay sound like a simple enough task, until you take into consideration thefact that DH is 6' 5", with almost all of his height being in his legs. Men'sclothing stores don't carry a lot of stock for men of that height. There arespecialty stores that do, but they are more expensive and are not handyto get to. Especially when shopping with a man who HATES to shop. Wewere lucky enough to find what we were looking for in two branches ofMark's Work Warehouse, one here in Georgetown, and the other inBrampton. The one in Brampton had the added bonus of being practicallynext door to a Michael's. So I was able to pop in there and pick up someplain evenweave and linen fabric for stitching. Yes, I'm sneaky.

Books relax me. Especially books with lots of pictures. I was browsingthrough blogs a few weeks ago and came across pictures of this book onAnn's blog "http://tempusfugit,.over-blog.com/" and I knew it was akeeper. Wonderful photographs of french influenced decor, crafts andlifestyle in general. I've been reading it, and I've been browsing throughit whenever I can, and it transports me away from my day to day world.It's as good as taking a trip away physically, only in my mind.

Thought I'd show you some of my bear and bunny collection, while talkingabout things that relax us. I love country style stuffed animals, and thislot are sitting next to our tv stand in the den. The basket was hand madeby a local artist who also paints lovely watercolours.

And finally, I finished reading Brenda RickmanVantrease's book "TheIlluminator" on Friday. Quite an enjoyable read, with great historicdetail. It takes place in England in the late 14th century, which was atime of great upheaval, with a child king on the throne, and the churchfighting to retain it's supremacy over the people in the face of growingcriticism and anger, and challenges from those who believe that allpeople should have the right to read the bible in their own nativelanguage, instead of only priests and the nobility who can read Latinor French. A bit of a love story in there as well. I understand there isa sequel just come out so I'll have to check that out. My thanks toLelia who raved about this book in her blog recently.

Sorry, no stitching stuff in this entry today. I've been stitching (andfrogging, alas) but nothing much to show. Today I must clean thishouse, but I look forward to much stitching time this week.Cheers all.